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Rethinking Japan: College Students Speak Their Minds
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23261 |
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Section : |
MODERN THOUGHT
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| Issue
Date : |
8 / 2003 |
7,231 Words |
| Author
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William Underwood
William Underwood, a faculty member at Fukuoka Jo Gakuin
University, is currently pursuing a doctorate in political
science at Kyushu University. |
Revolution and reform are words bandied about freely in Japan these days, applied to nearly every corner of public and private life. If the former term can be defined as a sharp break over a short period in a group's collective voice and vision, then the younger generation of Japanese may indeed qualify as revolutionaries.
This can make it tough to be a young person in Japan. The nation was shocked in January 2001 by the behavior of some twenty-year-olds taking part in the normally staid Coming of Age Day ceremonies, held annually in cities, towns, and villages across the archipelago. Besides mildly unruly behavior like talking on cell phones during addresses by dignitaries, more blatantly disrespectful pranks included throwing mayonnaise and even firecrackers at speakers. The mayor of one midsize city gave up halfway through his speech, tossing his script aside and storming off the stage. The twenty-something crowd has been unflatteringly branded as a hedonistic "new breed" incapable of the commitment to delayed gratification that defined previous postwar generations.
Legions of college graduates are passing on joining Japan's company-based working world, opting instead to continue their loosely structured employment as "freeters" in low-paying, noncareer service jobs. Freeters frequently overlap with the swelling ranks of "parasite singles," an even less kind term referring to adults who forgo marriage indefinitely in favor of the indulgent affluence of living with mom and dad. Indeed, Masahiro Yamada, the commentator credited with coining the term parasite singles, calls the group (up to ten million strong) a "symbol of the impasse at which contemporary Japanese society finds itself. A feeling of being at a dead end arises when people
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